Business

Published: Thursday August 6, 2009 MYT 10:28:00 AM
Updated: Thursday August 6, 2009 MYT 11:56:01 AM

New Zealand's unemployment rate at 10-year high


WELLINGTON: New Zealand's unemployment rate has hit a 10-year high of 6 percent, new figures showed Thursday.

Government-funded Statistics New Zealand said that during the last 12 months the number of unemployed rose by 48,000 to 138,000. Women were the most affected, the data showed.

"The unemployment rate rose by 1.0 percentage point during the June 2009 quarter, the largest quarterly increase since the September 1988 quarter," it noted, as it released its latest Household Labor Force Survey.

The survey showed the jobless rate has increased in each of the past six quarters, from a low of 3.5 percent in the quarter ended December 2007.

The latest spike was largely driven by a rise in the number of women registered as unemployed in the quarter ended June 30, it said.

About 12,000 women reported losing their jobs in that period, while the number of unemployed men rose by 8,000.

The survey - which measures all people out of work, not just those who qualify for benefits - shows female unemployment running at 6.3 percent compared to 5.7 percent for men.

In the latest quarter, 18,000 full-time jobs were lost, or 1.1 percent, while 7,000 part-time jobs were added, or 1.3 percent.

Social Development and Employment Minister Paula Bennett said despite the larger than expected rise in the number of people out of work, New Zealand is "holding up internationally, with an unemployment rate well under the OECD average of 8.3 percent."

The economy has been in recession since the start of 2008, but "the single biggest quarterly increase in the unemployment rate since September 1988 ... is obviously of concern to this government," she added. - AP


Latest business news from AP-Wire

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story